Peace is...a world in which women are inspired to hope and imagine.

Sunday, May 30, 2010

still procrastinating...

what a week, and the quilt is not yet done. I love how the quilting magazine says - this is a weekend project. Who's weekend? what time zone are they in? what clock do they use?

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

learning by doing things the wrong way

Took a evening long introduction to machine quilting class this past Monday, courtesy of KW Sewing Machines. Wendy Lamb was the gracious and informative instructor. I started making a list of all the things I did wrong on Sunday on the Pond Friend's quilt for Garret...a few of them:
1. using the same colour thread in the bobbin as the top thread...which means the backing has all sorts of different coloured lines on it. I'm not done yet, so I can save the rest of it by using a nice dark green all across the back.
2. in using walking foot, I REVERSED to tie down the threads...I did pull up the bobbin thread to start, but still reversed at the start AND the end. I will now take the time and have the patience to do this right, and use a needle to hide the threads into the sandwich. whoops. Ah, Garrett won't notice...
3. in the appliques of the animals, I fused them on to the top, and then satin stitched them on the top..and then when quilting, did a "stitch in the ditch" thing around the satin stitching...next time I will fuse them and then do a nice decorative stitch to secure them when the quilt is sandwiched!!
so that's just a few. Going to go back now and work on the remaining quilting, and try to get some pix up this weekend. Have lot's of ideas for quilting Emma J's quilt now!

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Starting quilting of Garrett's quilt

The quilt top is done, and the sandwich is spray basted (505 spray). The weather is nice and sunny, and of course, I should be outside in the sun instead of working on the quilt. But Lenore is coming over and I'm hoping against all odds that the quilt will be done and ready to go by the team Lenore leaves on Friday morning...that's a lot of hours between now & then! The top is all marked, and I'm nervous about going ahead and starting the work. Start with the stitch in a ditch of the grass, and then figure it out after that. Pictures to post as we go.
Stopped for the night. Learned I can stitch in the ditch around the applique. Now on to the free motion quilting! It's looking good - for a first try